I’ve heard it in the chillest land And on the strangest sea. And sweetest in the gale is heard And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. Hence, one is encouraged to live in hope despite the challenges of human existence.Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all. It’s always fearless and brave even in difficult situations. It seems fragile like feathers but it’s very strong.

In all, several themes can be drawn from the poem concerning the virtues of hope. Dickinson uses her own life experience in showing how hope assisted her in going through challenges and difficult situations. The excellent qualities of hope are also expressed in the final stanza of the poem. Hence, hope is simply seen in the poem as a durable virtue that can enhance human life. Not even a violent and uncontrolled storm can overpower hope. The human struggle is considered as a storm but only hope keeps it from crashing while the storm rages. She tries to describe the comfort we get from hope when we face challenges in life. She also sees it as a feathered bird that sings all day long. She sees hope as a definite character of the human soul. She tries to express her thoughts by using parallel images and analogy.

She goes ahead to throw more light about this by using several metaphors, imagery and other literary devices.Īctually, the poem portrays Dickinson’s inner suffering and struggle about life. This is clearly decoded from the title of the poem 'Hope is the Thing with feathers'. The poet uses several literary techniques such as imagery, hyperbole, and metaphors to express her message.Įmily Dickinson defines hope as being like the free spirit of a bird.

There’s also a unique rhyme scheme in the poems. Most of the Emily’s poems have the same format. The poem is also characterized by long dashes which signify pauses and breaks. It has an iambic trimeter format which usually expands to include a 4th stress at the end of a line. The poem Hope is the Thing with feathers is written in 3 stanzas with each of them having 4 lines. She lived a private life all through her adult stage having been trained in a very strict home. She was not well known all through her lifetime. She actually wrote up to 2000 short poems all through the 19th century but only got 7 of them published. 'Hope is the Thing with feathers' is a thought-provoking poem written by the American poet Emily Dickinson.

Hope poem by emily dickinson